2018 Hobonichi Unboxing

I have to admit, I was very slack with my Hobonichi art diary purchase this year. Last year, I remembered spending the whole morning of the first sale day refreshing the website until I finally secured my order. This year, I completely forgot about it until I started seeing unboxing videos on YouTube. Thankfully there was still stock left and my Hobonichi arrived to me within 10 days. I then didn't have a chance to take photos and put this post together because I was so busy working on my upcoming exhibition. But finally I can present my 2018 Hobonichi Life Book unboxing:

This year the diary came in a parcel with a rounded top, which was slightly different to last year, but still had an old-timey feel to it. The box inside was a bright yellow colour, with a quote on it: "Don't just reach for a bandage, 365 days is plenty of time to fix things up right."

Nestled under a layer of brown paper, the my diary was accompanied by the customary gifts. I again chose the Hobonichi Cousin, which is the A5-size diary with text in Japanese.

Included with the Hobonichi were the Life Book guide book, the welcome book brochure, a multi-pen and a set of meal planner cubes. I was pleased to see that there were two copies of the welcome book brochure, one in English and one in Japanese. I can keep one and cut the other one up to use in my diary.

The welcome book brochure has cute drawings of various types of people and how they use their Life Books -- including dogs and cats!

The meal planner cubes are a set of two dice. One has 6 different types of meats (including vegetables), and the other 6 different ways of cooking the meal, such as steaming or frying. It's not so much a meal planner as a meal randomiser. I think this is such a cute idea and I can't wait to use them!

I have to admit, I've been lax in using my current Hobonichi the last few months. I've been filling in only a single day here or there and leaving weeks or even a month blank in between. I will of course fill up those pages with drawings and paintings eventually, but that will be a lot of work. Receiving my new Hobonichi and writing about it has stimulated my interest again though, and I'll start again -- tonight!